Question 1

Why does the number 5 change to пяти here instead of just staying пять?

Accepted Answer

The preposition без (without) always forces the words following it into the genitive case. Numbers decline in Russian too! The number пять declines like a feminine noun ending in a soft sign (like ночь or тетрадь), so its genitive form is пяти.

Question 2

Wait, doesn't the number 5 require the noun to be in the genitive plural anyway? Why do all the words change?

Accepted Answer

This is a classic stumbling block! In the nominative case, you would say эти пять документов (where the noun is genitive plural, but the pronoun and number are nominative). However, when the entire phrase is put into an oblique case like the genitive because of без, those special number rules vanish. Instead, the pronoun, the number, and the noun must all agree in that new case. Therefore, этих, пяти, and документов are all in the genitive plural.

Question 3

Why use the perfective verb дать instead of the imperfective давать after не можем?

Accepted Answer

Even with a negation like не можем (we cannot), we use the perfective дать because the speaker is talking about a specific, single, successfully completed action (giving this particular loan). If they meant a general policy, like "we cannot give loans at all," they would use the imperfective давать.

Question 4

Why does кредит look like it's in the nominative case when it is the direct object?

Accepted Answer

It actually is in the accusative case! Because кредит (loan) is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative form is completely identical to its nominative dictionary form.

Мы не можем дать кредит без этих пяти документов.

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